Is Vanessa Dead? How Daredevil: Born Again Season 2 Could Be Adapting An Iconic Comic Run
As Vanessa's life hangs in the balance, the events of the last episode could set up a dangerous chain-reaction for Matt Murdock.
Since the very first season of Marvel’s Daredevil back in 2015, Vanessa Fisk (Ayelet Zurer) has been a key player and a bit of a Lady Macbeth in the brutal conflict between Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox) and Wilson Fisk (Vincent D'Onofrio). She is the first person we meet who accepts the Kingpin for what he is, without intimidation and free of deception or artifice, and that support pushes Wilson to become more confident and assured in his own monstrous nature. It was inevitable then that her eventual husband’s monstrousness would rub off on her — as it did over the course of three seasons of the original Netflix show. There, we watched Vanessa become more and more entrenched in Wilson’s criminal empire, with their brief, forced separations doing little to quell their desire to remake New York City as they see fit. And now, in Daredevil: Born Again Season 2, Episode 4, “Gloves Off,” Vanessa’s arc could be morphing into a story straight from a very specific comic book storyline. Spoilers ahead.
Two seasons into the revival series Daredevil: Born Again, Vanessa has established herself as a shrewd and ruthless White Queen in her own right, having kept the peace between NYC’s five criminal families in her husband’s absence and even siccing the mentally unstable assassin Bullseye on Foggy Nelson to cover up her illicit dealings regarding the Red Hook Freeport. But it seems the seeds of her labor have blossomed into bitter fruit – as of last night’s episode, Vanessa might pay the ultimate price for her relationship with Kingpin, with her left in dire straits after another assassination attempt from Bullseye. Going back to the source material, this isn’t the first time Vanessa Fisk has found herself nearing the end of her life, and that same storyline might provide a clue as to where Born Again might go next.
The complex relationship between Vanessa Fisk and her husband Wilson is a crucial part of Born Again and also one of Daredevil’s most praised storylines.
Vanessa Fisk's Born Again Arc Borrows From Her Comics Canon
For the longest time in comics canon, Vanessa Fisk wasn’t as complicit a compatriot in Wilson’s empire as she is in the show – she often pushed him to abandon his role as Kingpin for her, and the two even conceived a baby boy named Richard, who was sent off to Switzerland for school. The strain of various threats on their lives and her husband’s on-again/off-again relationship with crime would cause him to send her to Europe alone for safekeeping. Meanwhile, their son Richard returned, blaming his father for the whirlwind of crime constantly surrounding them and desiring a piece of his pie, a desire that would eventually culminate in Richard organizing an assassination attempt against his own father. (Much of this backstory began in 1970 in The Amazing Spider-Man #83. Though the 2004-2005 Daredevil comics brought Richard back.)
Catching word of this, Vanessa would return to Hell’s Kitchen to settle her husband’s affairs (in a manner not unlike her off-screen ascension prior to Born Again), massacring those responsible for his attempted murder. This included her own son, an event which shattered her emotionally and psychologically, so when it was discovered that she was suffering from an undisclosed terminal illness, she sought to tie up loose ends and resign herself to wasting away.
Not quite Wilson’s eager partner in the comics, the weight of her husband’s criminal activities take a physical and spiritual toll on Vanessa.
Those loose ends just so happen to be her husband and his arch-nemesis, Daredevil, the two people she blamed for the demise of her son and the destruction of their family. From behind the scenes, Vanessa orchestrated a series of events that publicly exposed Matt’s secret identity and landed both he and Fisk in prison, only to fake the murder of Foggy Nelson in the hopes that the two enemies would destroy each other. When Matt escaped and discovered the truth, Vanessa turned the tables on him, manipulating the system so that Matt’s reputation would be restored…only to be forced to use his skills as a lawyer to get Kingpin released as well, something Vanessa believed would be an ultimate stain on Murdock’s soul.
Born Again Is Seemingly Merging Two Comic Book Runs
So, it’s obvious that, while the show is adapting bits and pieces from both Brian Michael Bendis and Ed Brubaker’s back-to-back acclaimed runs on the character, certain elements are out of place – Wilson and Vanessa have no son, Vanessa harbors little ill-will towards her husband, and she’s not dying of an inexplicable illness. However, that doesn’t mean that her demise couldn’t function as an ersatz catalyst for Matt to end up imprisoned with his secret identity leaked.
Vanessa’s influence and her importance to the Kingpin could still end up shaping Daredevil’s ultimate fate.
Although Fisk has spent all season refusing to reveal Matt’s identity out of fear of challenging his own labeling of Daredevil as a villian the potential loss of his wife could make a typically dangerous man even more dangerous and desperate to boot, especially considering that from Kingpin’s perspective, it looks like Daredevil just saved Bullseye’s life. If Matt does successfully oust the Kingpin as mayor, who’s to say it won’t be a pyrrhic victory, one that costs Matt his freedom and his reputation?
Even if Vanessa isn’t the one to pull the strings the same way she does in the comics, there’s still a strong possibility that she could be the catalyst for Born Again season three being a loose adaptation of the iconic storyline The Devil in Cell Block D – and right now, like so many other times throughout Kingpin and Matt’s neverending battle, everything hinges on Mrs. Fisk.
